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Literacy centers, or stations, are ideal instructional strategies for some writing instruction and practice. As much as teachers love literacy centers (I do!), some instruction and practice is just not conducive to centers. Most teachers and professional writers would agree that drafting is a solitary affair between writer and the imagination. In the classic writing process stages, drafting follows pre-writing. Collaborative pre-writing (including research, discussion, organization, connection to prior knowledge, etc.) can certainly work well in the social atmosphere of literacy centers or cooperative groups. However, the pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard task of generating meaning seems to be part of the magic best suited for the magician alone.

Following drafting, the response-revision-editing-publication steps of the writing process work best in the social context of the classroom with student-student and student-teacher interactions. Whether using a writers workshop model or not, literacy centers can be beneficial instructional settings for working with the first draft.

Five Effective Uses of Literacy Centers for Writing Instruction

1. Response Activities

In the early years (1970s) of the National Writing Project and the popularization of teaching the writing process in schools, the response step was emphasized and valued as a necessary follow-up to the draft. Subsequently, more and more writing process charts and instructional approaches (writers workshop, 6 + 1 traits, Step up to Writing) tended to ignore this step. Some of the rationale for abandoning the response step seems to make sense. After all, student response groups can turn into mutual admiration societies (“It’s great. I wouldn’t change a thing.”) Or the blind leading the blind. Or crushing Yelp reviews of one star (sometimes as payback for past negative reviews). After all, we do teach kids.

However, if given concrete, objective “what to look for” response tasks dealing with what is said, response groups can be an essential step before writing revision. Additionally, most teachers find that guided response group tasks work efficiently to help writers decided what to keep and what to throw out. It’s all about waste management. Instead of spending excessive time analyzing and directing the trash disposal in terms of following the writing prompts, writing coherence, and unity, the teacher can reasonably expect that response groups can, at a minimum, sort the trash into recyclables, non-green waste, and compost. To mix metaphors, “Many hands make light work.”

2. Guided Revision

If well-designed response activities, used within literacy centers, can provide useful feedback to the writer regarding what is said in the draft and also save the teacher time dealing with the garbage, then well-designed guided revision tasks can help the writer work with how it is said. Guided revision is the back and forth discussion within the center regarding how the writer interacts with the reader.

For example, sentence structure and length is always a great guided revision task. It provides objective criteria: How many short sentences and long sentences are in the body paragraphs? How many simple sentences, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences are in the opening of the story? Are there any sections with three simple sentence in a row? Sections with two complex or compound-complex sentences back-to-back?

Or another example: sentence variety. How many sentences begin with the subject? How many passive voice sentences are there?

Or (from the author’s grammar handbook (see below):

e29Get more specific.The support evidence is too general. Add more specific evidence by including Fact, Example, Statistic, Comparison, Quote from an Authority, Logic, Experience, or Counter-Argument/Refutation. FE SCALE CR

3. Guided Editing

Focusing on mistakes in word choice, grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. can work well in literacy centers, but only if resources are made available and the editing is guided by discrete tasks.

The author provides a nice resource for student and teacher editing and revision in a grammar handbook: The Pennington Manual of Style provides 438 categorized comments which both literacy center partners and teachers can automatically insert into Windows Microsoft Word and/or downloaded into Google Docs or simply copied and pasted (for Windows and Mac users) as guided editing documents. The comments identify what is wrong, why is it wrong, and how to fix it.

For example, many students overuse “to be” verbs in both expository and narrative compositions:

Students need both the know how and tools to work with their own writing. If students don’t know that constantly beginning sentences with “There are,” “Here is,” “It was,” is poor writing style, unnecessary, and irritating to their audience, they will continue using these expletives. Literacy centers provide the collaborative experience for students to learn how to revise sentences. The author’s Writing Academic Literacy Center provides 56 mini-lessons for grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (Get a FREE one-month unit below to test-drive this program) to help students learn what to revise and how to do so.

5. Literary Response to Mentor Texts

Literacy centers help students borrow each other’s brains to solve problems, ask questions, understand complex ideas, come up with solutions, and apply what has been learned. However, if students only draw water from the same well (each other) the writing results and production will stagnate. Good writers build upon the broad shoulders of better writers. Using grade-appropriate mentor texts can stimulate new ways at looking at things. When connected to interpretive and analytical writing tasks, student writers are exposed to new ideas and new ways of saying these ideas.

The author’s Writing Academic Literacy Center provides 56 mini-lessons featuring short mentor texts and response activities. The response activities requires students to collaboratively alter the rhetorical stance of their responses in terms of voice, audience, purpose, and form). These brain-stretching mini-lessons will significantly improve student writing flexibility, maturity, and style.

I’m so confident that teachers will recognize the quality of design and content when they see these grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 writing centers that I’m offering the entire first month-long unit of the Academic Literacy Centers BUNDLE (all six centers) free of charge for you to test-drive. If you love them all (you just might), buy the full-year Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE or mix and match by buying the full-year individual centers. I’ve also attached an extensive preview of the Remedial Literacy Centers at the end of the unit for you to check out. Note: Please don’t post this free unit online or share with other teachers.

The individual centers and BUNDLES are available for sale on my Teachers Pay Teachers store and on www.penningtonpublishing.com (use discount code 3716 for 10% off at check-out).

Here’s what you will get in this free, one-month six-center Academic Literacy Center BUNDLE unit (255 pages plus the Remedial Literacy Center preview) sent as a download via email:

Academic Literacy Centers FREE Unit

Reading: Eight leveled expository reading fluency articles with word counts and timing chart. Eight corresponding comprehension worksheets with vocabulary in context. (The only components I can’t give you for this free sample are the modeled YouTube readings at three different reading speeds. You get access to these 129 readings with the paid version of the individual center or the BUNDLE.)

Spelling and Syllabication: Four spelling sorts based upon grade-level conventional spelling rules and four syllable worksheets

Study Skills: Eight self-assessment, study skills, reflection lessons: How to Get Motivated, How to Prevent Procrastination, How to Set Goals, How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude, How to Create a Home Study Environment, How to Get Organized for Homework, How to Complete a Daily Review, How to Manage Time for Homework

Prefer to see the extensive previews of each books before you download? Click HERE.

Check out Pennington Publishing articles on using literacy centers HERE.

You and your students will love these centers! Pick your grade level and get started with your month-long test-drive. Tell a colleague and earn a nice gift upon that colleague’s purchase of one of our BUNDLES!